EOS Basics

EOS Basics

Here we have put together a short set of tutorials which will help you get started with the EOS cryptocurrency, blockchain, and the range of other tokens and dApps that are part of the EOS ecosystem.

EOS works a bit different from other blockchains, so it’s worth spending a bit of time understanding how it all works.

While understanding EOS isn’t essential for using Trybe.one, you will require a basic understanding if you wish to use or trade your tokens.

Understanding EOS

There are a number of core concepts that you will need to get your head around to understand EOS properly:

Public and Private Keys

Just like on other blockchains, EOS also uses public and private keys. Public keys are the address that other people can see, while your private key is like your password and is used to authorise transactions (so keep it safe!)

EOS has a number of key types: owner keys and active keys. Owner keys are like master keys – they can do everything including change the active key. Keep them totally safe (preferably offline). Active keys allow you to make everyday transactions but you can’t change the owner key with an active key.

In this way, even if your active key gets hacked or stolen, you can still regain control over your account.

Accounts

Where EOS differs from other blockchains is in its use of accounts. Instead of sending tokens to someone’s public key, or using your keys to check your wallet balance, you use accounts. These are 12 character alphanumeric names that can be easily remembered.

To use EOS, you must have both a set of keys (private and public) AND at least one account attached to that keyset.

Once you have a keyset – you can attach any number of accounts to it, and each of those accounts will be independent from one another.

RAM, CPU, and Bandwidth (NET)

Unlike other blockchains, EOS does not charge you a fee each time you perform a transaction. Instead, each account has a certain amount of resources allocated to it, and these resources are temporarily used each time you perform a transaction. Those resources are: RAM, CPU, and Bandwidth (NET).

If you wish to perform lots of transactions, you will need more resources than if you transact infrequently.

After using your allocated resources, you will need to wait a certain amount of time for those resources to be replenished (or allocate more to your account).

In the case of storage (RAM) this does not get replenished and if you use up all your RAM then you will need to buy more unless you delete some data from your account.

The main thing which takes up RAM in a regular account is the storage of many different token types. It doesn’t matter how many of each token you have, but if you have lots of token types then this will use up RAM.

Other things which use RAM are things like smart contracts stored in your account, but this is not applicable to most people.

This “owned resource” model as opposed to a “pay as you go” model is one of the things that makes EOS different.

In order to allocate more resources to your account you must “stake” or “delegate” more EOS tokens in the case of CPU or NET, or buy more RAM in the case of RAM.

If you no longer need those resources, you can “unstake” or “undelegate” your EOS tokens, or sell your RAM, and you can then either sell or transfer the refunded EOS tokens.

This is kind of like buying a house. It’s yours to use for free after you’ve bought it, and when you’ve finished with it you can sell it.

In the image below you can see that I have 0.1 EOS staked to CPU and 0.1 EOS staked to NET (0.2 in total). This gives me a very limited amount of resources. I also own 7.96KB of RAM in this account, which is almost used up. Given the low resources allocated to this account – I will have trouble transacting with it. To use it properly I would need to stake more EOS for CPU at the very least.

Setting up and managing an account

The easiest way for a beginner to set up an EOS account is probably using the EOS Lynx wallet.

By using this wallet, you can purchase an EOS account quite cheaply using a credit card. Accounts cost just a few dollars each and this is mainly to cover the cost of the resources as mentioned above.

Watch the following video to see how to create your EOS account using the Lynx app (you can do this on a mobile or desktop app, although in the video it’s done on an iphone.)

Managing your account and connecting to apps using Scatter:

If you want to use your new EOS account on your desktop computer then the easiest way will be to set up the Scatter desktop application.

Scatter is not exactly a desktop wallet, but rather it is a secure way to authenticate yourself on the various EOS dapps such as exchanges, games, etc., including, of course, on Trybe.one.

All you need to do is to import your new private key into Scatter once, and then each time you want to use your EOS account on a website, you can authenticate with Scatter. This means you never have to enter your private key directly into a dapp, and it is stored securely on your own device.

Scatter is not only good for connecting to EOS, but it can also be used for connecting to Ethereum and Tron if you also have accounts there.

Using the EOS toolkit to manage your account:

Although managing some of the functions of your account can be done using the Lynx wallet, a great universal tool for managing your EOS account is the EOStoolkit.io

Using this website you can create new accounts, send tokens, stake EOS for more bandwidth (NET) or CPU, buy RAM, or a whole range of other things.

Watch the video below to see how to use the EOStoolkit:

Voting for Block Producers:

Another important part of being part of the EOS community is voting for block producers. Many of the EOS tools have this function. If you’d like to understand more about the role of block producers in EOS, and learn how to vote for them, then read this post.

There are many other great tools for EOS. Check out our EOS Dapps and Tools page for more information.